"There are metals everywhere," said Kathleen Smith, of the U.S. Geological Society, "in your hair care products, detergents, even nanoparticles that are put in socks to prevent bad odors." All make their way down the drain to wastewater treatment plants, where they emerge as solid, potentially mineable waste.

Some caveats: it's microscopic gold -- and silver and platinum -- that we're talking about here, and scientists still haven't figured out the best way to actually access it. But that very problem is now being addressed by a team of USGS researchers, who are presenting on their project this week at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

And the ends, they say, just may promising enough to justify the means (i.e., sifting through poop). "The gold we found was at the level of a minimal mineral deposit," Smith said, an amount that, in more typical settings, would be considered commercially viable to mine. Another recent study, to that effect, found that a community of one million Americans could "produce" up to $13 million worth of precious metals in one year alone.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/03/23/we_are_literally_flushing_millions_of_dollars_worth_of_gold_down_the_toilet_scientists_say/feed/11Des Moines’ solution to its water pollution problem: Suing its neighborshttp://www.salon.com/2015/01/12/des_moines_iowa_is_suing_its_neighbors_over_its_farm_based_water_pollution_problem/
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/12/des_moines_iowa_is_suing_its_neighbors_over_its_farm_based_water_pollution_problem/#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2015 15:25:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13860873The city of Des Moines, Iowa, has a contentious new plan for dealing with its polluted water: suing its neighboring counties.

Des Moines Water Works voted late last week to file suite against the supervisors in Sac, Buena Vista and Calhoun counties over farm runoff into the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers, which supply the city's drinking water.

The lawsuit is being called an unprecedented solution to a very real -- and expensive -- problem. The main source of nitrate contamination is the use of synthetic, nitrogen-based fertilizer on farms, along with animal manure, which, in Iowa, end up in streams after running through underground drainage systems. Heavy levels of nitrate, which is regulated under the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act, are associated with a number of serious health problems, including some cancers and the potentially fatal "blue baby syndrome" in infants under six months. And down the line, the pollution makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to the gulf's massive "dead zone."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/01/12/des_moines_iowa_is_suing_its_neighbors_over_its_farm_based_water_pollution_problem/feed/7This is climate change: Ohio’s water crisis was a man-made disasterhttp://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/this_is_climate_change_ohios_water_crisis_was_a_manmade_disaster/
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/this_is_climate_change_ohios_water_crisis_was_a_manmade_disaster/#commentsMon, 04 Aug 2014 15:15:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13740326Over the weekend, 400,000 people in northwest Ohio were told that their tap water was no longer safe to drink, cook with or bathe in. Water at a treatment plant had tested positive for dangerously high levels of toxins. Residents were warned that microcystis, the bacteria behind the chaos, can cause skin rashes and burns, along with vomiting, diarrhea and liver problems. It's been known to kill pets and livestock. And boiling water, officials added, only makes the problem worse. Life came, temporarily, to something of a standstill until 9 a.m. Monday when, after extra, precautionary delays, Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins finally declared the water safe again.

Welcome to life -- weird, chaotic, scary, disruptive -- in a changing climate. The direct cause of Ohio's water problems, according to city officials, was likely an algae bloom in Lake Erie. The cause of the algae bloom? In a word: Us.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/this_is_climate_change_ohios_water_crisis_was_a_manmade_disaster/feed/25Study: Ancient extinctions still affect modern ecosystemshttp://www.salon.com/2013/08/12/study_ancient_extinctions_still_affect_modern_ecosystems/
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/12/study_ancient_extinctions_still_affect_modern_ecosystems/#commentsMon, 12 Aug 2013 16:07:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13438941The Amazon basin used to be home to gomphotheres, giant ground sloths and 95 other now-extinct beasts known as "megafauna." Whether we're better off today for not getting the chance to know these large animals personally is debatable. But according to a study from the University of Oxford and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, South America continues to suffer the loss of their dung.

According to the researchers, ecosystems rely on animals to spread nutrients, specifically phosphorous. Large animals, with their proportionally large dumps, do the job most efficiently. But about 12,000 years ago, hunted by humans and strained by a changing climate, the megafauna all went extinct. Study author Chris Doughty calculates that the Amazon is still experiencing the effects of the extinction -- the progressively patchier distribution of nutrients -- and may continue to do so for another 17,000 years.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2013/08/12/study_ancient_extinctions_still_affect_modern_ecosystems/feed/1712 bodies recovered from Texas blast; 200 injuredhttp://www.salon.com/2013/04/19/12_bodies_recovered_from_texas_blast_200_injured_ap/
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/19/12_bodies_recovered_from_texas_blast_200_injured_ap/#commentsFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:33:00 +0000Jacob Sugarmanhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13276287WEST, Texas (AP) — The bodies of 12 people have been recovered after an enormous Texas fertilizer plant explosion that demolished surrounding neighborhoods for blocks and left about 200 other people injured, authorities said Friday.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said it was "with a heavy heart" that he confirmed 12 bodies had been pulled from the area of the plant explosion in West, about 20 miles north of Waco.

Even before investigators released a confirmed number of fatalities, the names of the dead were becoming known in the town of 2,800 and a small group of firefighters and other first responders who may have rushed toward the plant to battle a pre-explosion blaze was believed to be among them.

Reyes said he could not confirm Friday how many of those killed were first responders.

Rescue crews spent much of the day after Wednesday night's blast searching the town for survivors, and Reyes said those efforts were ongoing. He said authorities had searched and cleared 150 buildings by Friday morning and still had another 25 to examine.

The mourning already had begun at a service at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church the previous night.